Store celebrates full year of weekly music shows
By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY — The band didn’t stand a chance.
Taking a break after its opening set Monday night, the Madison, Wis.-based band The Gomers went behind the scenes at The Record Collector and never came back.
Instead, zombies invaded.
”We like to say the zombies followed us here, and we hope they won’t take over and finish the show,” said drummer Biff Uranus Blumfumgagnge.
But, of course, they inevitably do.
The Zombeatles, as the comedy-rock group’s “undead” alter-ego is known, drew an audience of about 40 people to the Farnsworth Avenue record store, which marks one year of live weekly music shows at the venue this spring.
In an interview at Jester’s Café on Farnsworth Avenue while they dined just before their show, three members of the zombie-themed group expressed some surprise at their sudden popularity.
”One of the weird things for me is that we kind of started the band in ‘86,” Mr. Blumfumgagnge said of The Gomers. “And then suddenly we got the Zombeatles idea, and it seems to have the strongest legs of anything we’ve done.
”It’s just kind of goofy that we’ve been working away, doing our stuff for all these years and then suddenly we hit upon this idea that just seems to have a resonance with people.”
Their Monday appearance was the third and final stop on the East Coast for the three members of The Gomers, after playing a private show in New York City and then performing at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch. The band has a rotating membership of about nine, three of whom made the trip.
Mr. Blumfumgagnge met Randy Ellis, the Bordentown City man who arranges the concerts at The Record Collector, in 1996. So when Mr. Ellis was recently looking for tribute bands and found the Zombeatles, the local connection was already there.
The drummer said he was impressed with the big names the record store has managed to draw, like The Dickies. Ironically, the store also played host to original Beatles drummer Pete Best last fall.
Mr. Ellis, who also arranged the Long Branch performance, said the show Monday was “very eclectic, very neat,” and that the audience reaction was quite favorable.
”People were afraid to sit in the front row,” he said, laughing. “They were afraid of the Zombeatles.”
The Gomers first put forth the idea for their undead parody band for the Halloween season in 2004.
”We love the Beatles; we love zombies,” explained guitarist Stephen Burke. “It just lent itself to it.”
The group checked around and found the idea hadn’t been done before, he said, and so appropriately, “It seemed a no-brainer.”
They uploaded a music video, “A Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead,” to the Internet video-sharing service YouTube, and figured that would be the end of it.
But a year later, in 2007, famed horror filmmaker Rob Zombie served as YouTube’s guest editor on Halloween, and chose which videos to feature on the site’s homepage. Out of the millions of clips uploaded by users, the director chose The Zombeatles’ video as one of only a handful to highlight.
The clip has gone on to be viewed over a million times and draw almost 3,000 comments, which the band characterized as evenly split between positive and negative.
”After you’ve had a million people look at it, and a half a million of them say ‘we want more,’ we figured we might as well do some more,” Mr. Burke said.
”So we recorded a full-length record of all Beatles parodies from the zombie’s perspective” on the band’s Madison-based label, Beeftone Records, he said. The CD, which features tracks like “Ate Brains a Week” and “I Wanna Eat Your Hand,” is in the process of being released.
The group was also approached by Wisconsin-based Canadian filmmaker Doug Gordon, and ended up starring in a 23-minute “mockumentary” entitled “All You Need is Brains,” which was released last month and is available at www.allyouneedisbrains.blogspot.com.
The movie, along with assorted Gomers and Zombeatles CDs and merchandise, is also available at The Record Collector.
The band credited YouTube for exposing it to a wider audience.
”I don’t see how we could’ve reached 1 million viewers otherwise,” Mr. Blumfumgagnge said, adding his hope is to get the band to Japan.
All three band members interviewed said all they really want is the chance to perform.
”It’s fun to be here and play this weird music that has a receptive audience,” Mr. Blumfumgagnge said.
Keyboardist Dave Adler agreed.
”We’re happy and honored to be here,” he said.
For the latest at The Record Collector, go to www.the-record-collector.com.